Prescribing digoxin in geriatric units: The unexplained variability in dosage requirements
- 1 August 1987
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Nature in European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology
- Vol. 32 (6), 611-614
- https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02455997
Abstract
Some physicians regard patients of Geriatric Units as a homogeneous population with respect to digoxin dosage requirements. Others advocate the use of pharmacokinetic models in prescribing digoxin for the elderly. Sixty in-patients of Geriatric Units were studied and the results compared with those previously obtained from 129 patients of other adult Units; all were receiving maintenance digoxin. For each patient the dose required to achieve a mean steady-state serum digoxin concentration of 1.6 nmol·l−1, the standardized dose, was calculated, assuming proportionality between the dose given and the concentration achieved. A mean of four estimates of standardized dose for each individual was used in the analysis. Threefold ranges of standardized dose covered the requirement of approximately 85% of patients both of Geriatric Units (62.5 to 187.5 μg per day) and of other adult Units (125 to 375 μg per day). The variables, serum creatinine concentration, sex, age, and body weight were of relatively little value in predicting the standardized dose for the patients in Geriatric Units. There was a sub-group of these in-patients for whom the standardized dose was extremely large.This publication has 14 references indexed in Scilit:
- Influence of range of renal function and liver disease on predictability of creatinine clearanceClinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, 1981
- Age dependence of myocardial Na+-K+-ATPase activity and digitalis intoxication in the dog and guinea pig.Circulation Research, 1981
- Ideal sampling time for drug assays.British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 1980
- Digoxin pharmacokinetics in the elderlyPublished by Springer Nature ,1979
- A score for prescribing digoxin.Heart, 1978
- Differential effects of digoxin at comparable concentrations in tissues of fetal and adult sheep.Circulation Research, 1977
- STEADY-STATE KINETICS OF DIGOXIN IN THE ELDERLYAge and Ageing, 1976
- Digoxin: linearity between dose and serum concentration [letter].British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 1976
- Plasma digoxin concentration--its relation to digoxin dosage and clinical effects in patients with atrial fibrillation.Heart, 1972
- Blood Levels of Drug at the Equilibrium State after Multiple DosingNature, 1965